A level playing field for gun debate in Australia. Combating the lies, fear mongering and misinformation perpetrated by the media and politicians.

Thursday, 23 August 2012

Carrying a concealed weapon in Australia

I'd like to propose that Australia introduce a licensing system for citizens to carry a concealed weapon (handgun) in Australia.

This will be a tough sell as most people have never handled a pistol, don't understand the safety features, and have been brainwashed by the media and politicians for decades - creating a society that has an irrational fear of firearms. Jeff Cooper coined the term 'Hoplophobia' back in 1962, describing it as a "mental disturbance characterised by irrational aversion to weapons".

I want you to put aside your irrational fear of firearms for a moment while I present you with some facts:

It is not possible to ban guns from a society - read my blog here to learn why.....

Violent crime in Australia is up and comparable in many ways to the United States. The media and our politicians love to hide this fact from you. In Australia, a woman is three times more likely to be raped than in America.

You might say you don't want an American gun culture. I don't either and I'm not proposing that. I don't support the idea of self-regulation and the private sale of firearms and ammunition to anybody and everybody. Background checks, licensing and training are essential for anyone who wishes to use a firearm in Australia. Learn the facts here why we are nothing like America when it comes to gun culture.

Because Americans have guns they are more likely to shoot each other. You will often see statistics of gun deaths in America compared with other countries claiming this is the case. What they fail to mention is that most of those deaths are attributed to suicide and because firearms are so readily available, they are the tool of choice for suicide in the US. Suicide is just as concerning in Australia, it's just that we choose instead to jump at the gap or gas ourselves in the garage. The population of America is 14 times greater than that of Australia, so a per capita comparison is more like 715 America / 60 Australia deaths by firearms. I have included a graph below that shows how much more likely you are to die by other means in the US.

In the last two decades, the UK has introduced the most restrictive gun laws in the developed world, banning many types of firearms. During this time crime has skyrocketed and criminals are the only ones with guns. Read more here...

As a law abiding Australian citizen who goes to work and pays his taxes, don't you feel the Government should be doing more to protect you from violent criminals? I'm sure they believe they are doing the best they can, but the problem is their strategy is wrong. Criminals get too much of a free ride these days. Violent offenders brazenly rob, rape and beat people with little fear that a good citizen will step in to put a stop to the attack.

Police cannot be everywhere to protect everyone. There is about one police officer per 500 citizens and each officer works 40 hours during a 24/7, 168 hour week, reducing the ratio to 1:2100. Then you need to factor in how much time they actually spend on the beat, rather than doing paperwork, time in court etc.

Policing is not a proactive business with respect to violent crime. It's impossible to tell when and where a rapist might attack and potentially give you a nasty disease. There's not much you can do about that disease after the fact either. You can't sue AIDS or Hepatitis C in a court of law.

Now I'm not suggesting for a moment that you or your daughter carry a concealed weapon to protect yourselves, but what I am proposing is that those good citizens who are trained and licensed to use pistols should be legally allowed to carry in public in their own personal time.

Why can't an off-duty police officer choose to carry a pistol when he is doing his grocery shopping, or an armed security guard or sporting pistol shooter for that matter? Approximately 0.5% of Australians are trained and licensed to use pistols. How brazen would a criminal be knowing that 1 in 200 citizens would be only too happy to step in and assist another good citizen like yourself in distress?

Here are some figures from the US to show that firearms aren't responsible for as many deaths as the media would like you to believe.

Firearms safety training is standard the world over. In Australia, comprehensive training, testing and vetting is mandatory for anyone seeking a handgun licence for target shooting.

Police, armed security guards and military personnel all under-go the same background checks and training. Learn more about the process here...

Florida was one of the first states in the US to introduce conceal carry weapon permits. Just look at how the murder rate has dropped since the introduction.

You have a choice. You can continue to believe the media, political spin, lies and fear-mongering, or you can choose to believe that authorities recognise they cannot control criminals, so they control the law abiding. Lobby your government to allow licensed people to carry and remind them Article 3 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person".

36 comments:

I think that your arguments are a fair bit extreme. Your arguments focus around crime, showing that there is an irrational fear of crime.

We shouldnt be carrying firearms to protect from criminals. We should be preventing criminals at the base level, Preventing them from becoming such people through education. Just look at countries such as those in Scandinavia. Free education, free health care, and crime is ranked amongst the least in the world, so too teen pregnancy, drug use and overall incarceration numbers.

Carrying firearms would just exacerbate the problem, with members of the public acting as vigilantes, taking the law into their own hands.

I think that you need to look at the root of problems, and not at the extremist gun toting

I agree with you if we had social policies like they do in Scandinavia there would be no justification for CCW in Australia. But unfortunately our social policies are much similar to the US and we are heading down that path. CCW permits have shown significant reduction in crime in all US states that have introduced them. There is no evidence to support your statement that introducing them in Australia would exacerbate the problem. That's just a perception you have.

My arguments talk about Australians having an irrational fear of guns not crime. Nobody ever thinks they would ever be a victim of crime until it happens to them, often turning their whole world upside down.

Citizens already have the right to take the law into their own hands. We are allowed to make citizens arrests in Australia. It's just we risk our own well-being doing so when we're not allowed to be armed.

And i'm not proposing everyone carry. I'm talking about people already licensed to use a handgun. Police, security, sport pistol shooters. 0.5% of the population.

There is nothing extreme about my proposal. I just think you haven't really thought through what i've said and are reacting emotively.

Well while concealed carry is not within our grasp here in oz, If I was in a scenario even similar to that above and I got word that there was an intruder in my daughters home, you'd bet I would be on my way there armed and ready for confrontation. Defending our loved ones is instinctive and is a part of our nature.

Speaking emotively... Yet you post a picture in your argument about what would protect a daughter best from a nearby rapist. Not just any rapist, mind you, but a rapist with aids. Yet, at the same time you argue that only a very select few be permitted to carry handguns. I really doubt the very few qualified people (as you put it) include most people's daughters.

How about the fact tbat as a living free being you habe the right to buy amd own whatever you choose. Including hand guns. Criminals eill mever follow the rules. So preventing someome from defending themselves is only making them prey. As for the term i read earlier... american gun culture...I have to take that as a compliment. Thankyou. The statements after are innacurate though. The more people in a society to own guns..the more polite the society will be. You will see crime go down. This is because you never know who you are dealing with as a criminal and are less likely to engage in criminal activity.

Muslims are not the cause of Sweden's rape problem. Rather, Sweden has significantly broadened its definition of rape to include assault and bodily harm. Most importantly, many countries only count each case (i.e., each person) rather than each rape episode. Thus, for example, one person could have been raped numerous times meaning that there is only one case but numerous episodes. Unlike many other countries, Sweden refers to each episode. The introduction of their broadened rape definition, rather than the spurious correlation between Muslim immigration and the rape count, are the cause of Sweden's rape count.

I agree with you, however the government doesn't want you to be able to protect yourself. They want you to work your 40hr week, pay your tax and shut the fuck up. They want your reliance on their broken system.

To the above poster, recommending that we try to 'fix' criminals by offering free education and free health care.... we basically do, from memory my friends who went to public schools paid voluntary fees, which were a pittance and with medicare we can go to the doctor and have the majority of our treatment funded. If it was to be 'freer', where would this money come from? The government is spending billions on letting in alleged refugees, Somalians and Sudanese, who were recently reported by ABC news to be 5 times more likely than other Australians to commit criminal offences. With the government spending so much money importing and supporting future criminals, why would they do anything that would impact their successful increase in crime statistics?

I agree.But, Fuck the criminal. They get plenty of government assistance, plus a free get out of jail card. While we get laws imposed on us.We should be allowed to defend ourselves, any idiot thinks differently deserves whatever comes to them.There should be mandatory sentencing for criminal activity using a weapon. Not these pussy laws letting these idiots go.My two cents!

Fear of an inert object is irrational, totally irrational. A weapon is not a weapon until it is employed as a weapon, and to employ an object as a weapon takes a person, that person is a member of society and as such having some fear for the potential actions of such a person is far from irrational. Pull your head out of your newspaper and get out of your bubble, go walk the streets late at night, head down to your local crime ridden area and get some perspective; Crime is becoming an enormous problem in our society and our rights to self defense are laughable at best.

So you're cool with this guy rocking up to your house and leaving you helpless? Please. http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/crazed-gunman-on-the-run-in-ellenbrook-after-late-night-rampage/story-e6frg12c-1226455479118

This would be a really positive step for Australia, we can keep licensing and background checks but expand the rights of citizens to actually defend themselves once they've shown themselves to be responsible gun owners. Sounds like a good plan to me.

I agree with Ivan's comment, Once civilians have been through a firearms safety and training course and applied for a CCW should be allowed to use it in personal defence! I am a fully licensed Cash in Transit Officer and I am allowed to own a gun but not allowed to carry or use it outside of work unless at a gun range. If I had it on me travelling to a gun range or work and someone wanted to car jack me. I would not be allowed to use it even though I am fully licensed and allowed to own it, Funny part is once at work and I am protecting "goods" and with reasonable and justified force use it but to protect someone's life its a big no no.

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Hello to all my brothers/sisters on the front line of this debate. I live in the U.S. in the state of Arizona.. We along with the majority of the states enjoy the freedom to protect ourselves, family, friends and home.. Where we have the most relaxed laws on responsible gun ownership, we also have the lowest levels of violent crime and murder.. All those states are run by conservative constitutional governors.. Where we have the most restrictive laws, our violent crime and murders are at the highest levels.. Those states are run by the liberal left...I carry a concealed gun everyday because Police are too heavy for me to carry.. And they are always about 10 minutes away.. In about 90% of Arizona cities, bad guys are scared to commit a crime in the day time. They know that there are alot of citizens walking and driving around that carry and will protect their fellow citizens... A nice environment to live in...

In Australia we dont have school shootings, car jackings, drive buys, kids taking Guns to school or accidental shootings. I don't need a Gun to protect myself as its highly unlikely that anyone breaking into my home would have one. Why are you trying to persuade Australians into accepting a situation that would cause all of the problems that I have just listed? Why do you think we would want easier access to Guns if those problems would start to occur?

I really doubt that Australia doesn't have violent crime in the streets and in the homes. You might need to check your medication. There are reasons certain areas of the U.S. have high amounts of violent crime such as poverty and lack of education which create gangs, desperation and such, but most of the U.S. isn't anywhere near violent. All of the school shooting came from kids w/ mental problems to kids on drugs. Drive by's happen almost always where there are the strictest gun control laws in our country. The most liberal (socialist) type states in our Union have the worst crime and the states w/ the most gun freedoms have the least amount of crime because citizens are easy targets when un armed..The reason fire-arms are legal here is because our Freedom comes from nature and natures God not from man. It is our rite to protect ourselves just as it is all mankind's right to protect themselves from bad people and tyrannical governments. You go ahead and hope a bad guy doesn't have a gun, knife or another tool to hurt you or that if someone attacks they don't have friends.. For me I have the great equalizer w/ me at all times. It's insurance just like you have for your health, car, home or Life. You'll probably never need it but what if you do... Take care, We in the U.S. love Australia...

A retired detective friend told me that if Briant had of walked into the Broad Head Arrow Cafe two days earlier and started shooting he would have dropped him with his .38. Briant's good luck I suppose that the timing was off, but I wonder if laws would be as they were. Semi auto centrefire's, .22's, shot guns etc we all had one or two.One big change from Howard's gun buy back is to the environment, look at the landscape- where are all the young Red Gum trees? Rabbits have taken them out of the picture, when the old trees go that will be it for the mighty Riverena Red Gum.Pigs and foxes are now in bigger populations than ever before. These noxious invaders are changing the Australian biodiversity right now and it will be permanent.The guns we had in the 1980's were keeping the feral's at bay-political point scoring took them away.

Pigs,you mean not police,but in Sydney it describes young muslim plastic gangsters,a gun is how a leb speaks,a gun is how a leb will die,coming from a background of mafia hitmen,my Sicilian mum told me,Stevie boy,you a live by the lupara and the knife,i send you to Jersey and Philly,meeta nice boys,some day youa gonna run a crew,if the boss says a guys gotta go,he goes,otherwise you mighta get whacked,well she was also a killer in WW2,a bloodthirsty witch,trained as a nurse she said,fuck them japs,what I do to them clowns is nuttin compared to what papa's boys did in Sicily,anyhow,threaten my family my property my kids,next stop for you,the morgue.

I support the view that we need more relaxed laws regarding firearms. I also support the idea of concealed carrying by responsible people. But along with that, we would require laws that protect the citizen that stands up to protect themselves and others. The Greens and Labor would not be willing to allow this.

In Australia we dont have school shootings, car jackings, drive buys, kids taking Guns to school or accidental shootings. I don't need a Gun to protect myself as its highly unlikely that anyone breaking into my home would have one. Why are you trying to persuade Australians into accepting a situation that would cause all of the problems that I have just listed? Why do you think we would want easier access to Guns if those problems would start to occur?

So for example what about those poor people in France that have been murdered by criminals or terrorists with Gun's and bombs.So its ok for the NON law-abiding people to have them? and go around killing!Yet it is Not ok for a Law-abiding person of good character to have the right to carry to protect him or herself or others from theses sort of bad people!Or are all the good people just meant to stand by and be killed and maned by people that have no respect for the law or life of others!

@chris brewer. I agree with you absolutely. Given the option I would start carry a concealed weapon again. Growing up in Zimbabwe, CCWs are the most important item u leave home with. Living in Australia now, I would still carry.

The only reason I have to doubt some of the reterick posted here is the simple fact that I can't think of a school shooting/terrorist attack where someone with a CCW brought the attack to an end!!

I am glad that there are web pages like this that exist in Australia. Thanks so much. It's so hard to find common sense in this world. Hopefully Australians will see the light one day and question equality in the gun sense -- police can walk around with guns... why can't we?